4hours1000places.comhttp://www.4hours1000places.com
The Blog of Travelling Lifestyle Designer Raffael SchulzSun, 14 Oct 2018 13:50:36 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8Current Status of 4hours1000placeshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/4hours1000placescom/~3/rVT4Q1SsYtI/
http://www.4hours1000places.com/current-status-of-4hours1000places/#commentsTue, 10 Jun 2014 10:17:00 +0000http://www.4hours1000places.com/?p=1780Continue reading »]]>The last couple of years, we spent a whole lot of time traveling and exploring the world. Through this blog, we were able to share parts of that with you. The goal of this entire blog was to share our travels (stories, pictures, etc) and our business development with you.

As you can see, it is has been a while since I posted something here and I keep making promises that it will change. I promised that I would post more frequently. I don’t like making promised I can’t keep. I don’t like breaking a promise.

We want to focus our energy on one project at a time. As for now, our focus is entirely on our business surrounding our German wedding website Hochzeitsportal24 (incl. app and book). Even though I am not posting anything here, I still think about it a lot. I feel guilty for not writing anymore. And that has to change. I could start writing again or I can officially stop or pause this blog. I decided to do the latter.

For now (or maybe forever) this blog will stay as is. All posts and images will still be up, but I won’t update it anymore. Maybe I’ll come back, maybe I won’t. So enjoy the articles that are already online.

You can still write me emails or on my facebook wall. I will take the time to answer if you have any questions or if you need some help with anything.

Sorry for not taking the time to deliver more content for you. Thanks for reading and supporting this blog so far. I hope you enjoyed it, while it lasted.

-Raffael

]]>http://www.4hours1000places.com/current-status-of-4hours1000places/feed/1http://www.4hours1000places.com/current-status-of-4hours1000places/Planning our next triphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/4hours1000placescom/~3/xULgZpliC9w/
http://www.4hours1000places.com/planning-our-next-trip/#respondThu, 01 Aug 2013 14:52:51 +0000http://www.4hours1000places.com/?p=1764Continue reading »]]>We are planning a new, 6-month long trip, so it is time for a new blog post about our process of how we start planning our trips.

It’s been a while, since we posted here. Even though we haven’t even published all posts that are almost ready and marked as “draft”. I am not the one to find excuses, so I’ll try not to sound to apologetic. We just had a different focus the last few months since our return from our trip around the world. Since we came back, we

and did some other cool stuff to improve our business, that took a lot of time and energy.

So we have been quite busy… However, we are planning a new trip, so let’s dive into our planning process:

Step 1: Where and how long do we want to go? What type of travel do we want?

We always start our planning with the thought of where to go. This determines everything else. If we want to go to a high price country, we probably won’t stay too long, whereas if we go to South East Asia, we might spend a few months there.

The next thought is the type of travel. Do we want to backpack, see lots of places or do we want to stay mainly in one place?

This time our trip is mainly business related. We will go to Phuket to work with our mastermind group for a week, then head to Bangkok for a conference and then well stay in Koh Tao for a few months, since we want to explore the possibility of building up a honeymoon and/or wedding website for Koh Tao.

Step 2: Find a flight

Finding a flight can be quite time consuming, if you want to find the cheapest airfare, especially if you are not going from big cities to big cities, but maybe want to fly to a smaller destination. We always use skyscanner.net or ebookers.

Since we want to go to Phuket directly to save us the hassle of taking the bus from Bangkok, we are taking a flight from Amsterdam to Phuket and will fly back to Amsterdam from Bangkok. This saves us about 130€ in comparison to a flight from Frankfurt, which of course would be much closer.

Step 3: Find accommodation

If you go to South East Asia, you don’t have to find an accommodation beforehand, but I recommend, you find a place for at least one night, so you’ll know where to go and don’t have to worry about it on the first day. After that, just walk around and you”ll find the place you want to stay.

In SEA, you can book online, but the places are really cheap when booking directly, so you don’t have to. In other places, you can save yourself a lot of money by booking online. For higher priced destinations like London, I recommend Hostelworld (if you don’t mind hostels) or AirBnB (if you want something nicer and maybe even private).

For longer stays, like our planned trip, it is much easier to just go there and find something while you are there.

Everyone has seen the world famous Niagara Falls (at least on pictures or on TV)…but, the Niagara Falls have even much more to offer than one might think.

The up to almost 6 million liters of water per second that form the Niagara River rushing down the Falls are nothing short of spectacular. Even though today a lot of the water is used for power generation, the remaining water is still quite impressive.

The river and the falls separate the United States from Canada, resulting in on part being called the Canadian side (the more famous Horseshoe Falls) and the American side.

Maid Of The Mist – Boat Tour

We only saw it from the Canadian side, so I can’t tell you which side is better, but I can’t imagine the American side being even more spectacular.There is so much to do and we didn’t get to do any of the attractions. There are boat tours, a tour behind the falls, IMAX documentaries, helicopter flights and more. And these are all the attractions just for the Niagara Falls. Combined with the other part of town with all the games and shows there is probably enough to do for a week.Our bus left before sunset so we didn’t get to see the water falls illuminated or the fireworks. Both is supposed to be awesome. I guess, we’ll have to come back another time to see that. Maybe in winter, when parts of the water falls freeze. I cant’t imagine how pretty that must look.

Erosion of Niagara Falls (click to enlarge)

Getting To Niagara Falls

Unfortunately all rental cars (and tours) where booked for the whole weekend, so we ended up taking the Megabus from Toronto to Niagara Falls. This ended up being cheaper than any other option anyways. And more comfortable, too, since there was so much traffic on the street.The only inconvenience was the bus terminal in Niagara Falls, which is about a 45 minute walk away from the main attractions. And for some reason, the buses to the main attractions are not even properly sign posted.

Fun Burger King – Just like Vegas

When we got out of the local bus we couldn’t help but feel like being in a smaller Vegas or a fair ground. There was so many different tourist attractions: rides, games, wax museums (yes, more than one – I counted three) and so much more.

The normal reaction to such touristy attractions that exploit natural beauty are not something that I agree with. However in Niagara Falls most of the non-Falls attractions are not interfering with the natural beauty. Between the Niagara Falls and Clifton Hill (that’s where most of the action is) there is a lovely park which lets you enjoy the natural wonder without being disturbed by the other tourist attractions if you wish to do so.

Choosing The Right Time To See Them

Us at The Falls

We made a few bad choices when choosing the day to go to The Falls. The first one was to go on a Saturday, even worse, the Saturday of a long weekend in Canada (Civic Holiday). The second was to chose a day in August when the sun was burning down, letting the temperature rise to 36°C.

The result was us being surrounded by thousands of other tourists and not being able to enjoy everything as much as we could because the heat was really getting to us. Nonetheless, we didn’t let that stop us from having great time at the Niagara Falls, I just wish that we had known how much there is to do.

If we’d known, we would have stayed here for at least one night.

Are The Niagara Falls Really 1 Of The 1000 Places?

The mist creates beautiful rainbows

I really regret that we didn’t get to stay longer. There is so much to do and the view is really amazing. So yes, this is most definitely a place that belongs on the list. Maybe even twice because you can go in the winter and in the summer and have two completely different experiences.

As long as you don’t mind sharing the beauty with thousands of other tourists, you will really enjoy this place and you’ll agree with me (and many others) that everyone should get a chance to see the Niagara Falls once in their life.

This is the third time that I visited Pike Place Market and there is no way I am getting tired of it. This place is full of fresh fruit stands, the amazing yelling fish vendors, dozens of tiny shops with weird things and many, many stands of local artists trying to sell their art to the rush of tourists and locals.

The whole experience is enhanced by buskers (street performers) who play their hearts out in the hope of being the next superstar. One group of musicians you might catch is the a Capella gospel singers in front of the very first Starbucks who seem to be there every day.

The famous fish throwers

Art lovers and people who enjoy fresh produce will be delighted by Pike Place Market because the policy of the market is “meet the producer”. This means that (apart from few exceptions) the vendors are only allowed to sell their own goods.

Like with any market, there isn’t really much to write about as the whole experience can not be grasped by words.

Why Is Pike Place Market 1 Of The 1000 Places?

With Pike Place Market it is not so much about the market itself, but about the entire setting of it. Right in downtown Seattle.

Art and music – this is Seattle

A place in the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and yet it has such a quiet and relaxed vibe that makes you think you are in the most industrial hippie town on earth.

There is music and street art everywhere you look and the only thing people seem to be worried about is where to get their next coffee (no wonder this is the birthplace of Starbucks).

Strolling through Pike Place Market is a mix between a visit to a modern art museum, a concert of some soon-to-be-famous-musician and a market where people can buy fresh fish and produce to their hearts desire.

The Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is a replica of a classical Chinese garden as they have been built in Suzhou, China in the Ming dynasty (1386-1644). It was the first Chinese garden outside of China that was built exactly like the old ones in China.

Not only did they solely use materials imported from China, but they also used the exact techniques that were used hundreds of years back. That means no power tools, no nails and no glue was used for the construction of the Sun Yat-Sen Garden.

Dr. Sun Yat Sen statue

If you are wondering who Sun Yat-Sen was, he was one of the first president and founding father of the Republic of China and is considered to be the father of modern day China. The park and garden was named in his honor, because he tried to bring Chinese culture to the west and give the western countries a better understanding of what China really is, just like the garden helps understand Chinese culture today.

What Is A Chinese Traditional Garden?

These gardens are not comparable to any western style garden as you might know them. They are much more a house and living area than just a garden.

Nice Bridge with two sidewalks

They are building complexes within cities where the Scholars used to live, that’s why they are often also referred to as “Scholar’s gardens”.

All throughout the garden complex you find four elements: water, rocks, plants and architecture. The elements water, rocks and plants are used to create miniature landscapes. As you are moving along the halls and walkways along the garden you see these miniature landscapes as if they were paintings.

I never knew how amazing the detail of a classical Chinese garden could be like before I actually saw one.

Circle entrance

Now that we visited the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, I found a deep respect for these types of gardens. Everything is so intensely thought through. Every little piece had a purpose. Wherever you look, there is always a balance between feminine and masculine architecture, plants and rocks, dark and bright.

If you really want to learn to appreciate the garden, you should take advantage of the hourly tour that is included in the admission fee. This way, you’ll be able to understand and learn about all those little nuances that you most likely would miss if you don’t have anyone to make you aware of them.

Chinese picture window

Of course there are lots of superstitious elements in the garden as well. Learning about them and finding the little elements all around the garden is at least as much fun as admiring the beauty of the garden itself.

Is The Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden 1 Of The 1000?

As much as the garden and Chinese craftsmanship amazed me, there is one simple reason why this place does not belong t the list:

View from Sun Yat Sen Park

It is a replica. And a small one, too. The Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver is a beautiful replica, but a replica nonetheless.

And since there are still so many great Chinese classical gardens still intact, like the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou, China, which is supposed to be one of the finest Chinese Gardens in the world, I don’t see, why the much bigger and older original garden is not one of the places and one of the replicas is in there.

Therefore, this one will get scratched of the list, but at the same time, we’ll add the Humble Adminstrator’s Garden to the list.

Mint stone floor

Even though we scratched it, if you find yourself in Vancouver and you don’t have the chance to go to Suzhou in the foreseeable future, please go and see the Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden as it will give you a much better understanding of the wonderful traditional Chinese culture.

Today I like to present you with another fabulous place in this world: The Waitomo Caves on the north island of New Zealand. I don’t feel like writing too much about them, because you just have to see it for yourself. However, I’ll try to give you enough information about the caves that makes you want to go there for your next vacation.

The Waitomo Caves are a network of hundreds of limestone caves which are believed to be about 2 million years old. Of course you won’t be able to see all caves (they aren’t even all completely explored). If you want to see the best part of these caves, you can focus on the 3 main caves: the Waitomo Cave, Ruakuri Cave and Aranui Cave.

Interesting stalactites

These caves are limestone caves with amazing stalactite and stalagmite formations which leave every visitor with a mix of fascination and admiration of the wonders of the world. Like all limestone formations, they have formed over thousands of years and let you gain some perspective on the duration of our own lives on this planet.

Each cave has its own character and is famous for something else. We got to see the Waitomo Cave, which is famous for its glowworms, and the Ruakuri Cave, which is one of the largest and also the only wheelchair accessible cave in the southern hemisphere.

Glowworms’ fishing lines

These caves have been formed by underground rivers that run through the limestome and carve out the caves tiny pieces at a time. If you are the more adventurous type, you might want enjoy one of the many adventure tours, like abseiling or black water rafting, which are offered at the Waitomo Caves.

Waitomo Glowworm Cave

The most famous cave is probably the Waitomo Glowworm Cave, even though the glowworms in Waitomo aren’t actually worms, but rather are fascinating maggots with a glowing tail. They are only found in New Zealand in dark caves with water running through them.

Wonderful “stars” in the Glowworm Cave

These glowworm use “fishing lines” of some sticky material to catch insects for them. In the darkness the insects that are washed into the darkness by the river see the bright tails, fly towards them and get caught in the sticky fishing lines.

For us visitors it is quite a thing to see. You get to see the glowworms in other caves as well, but there aren’t as many in one spot as there are in the Waitomo Glowworm cave. To really get to experience the glowworms, you get to take a boat ride in the complete darkness with the glowworms right over your head.

If you wouldn’t know any better, you would think that you are outside on a summer night watching the stars.

Why Are They On Our List of 1000 Places To See Before You Die?

Breathtaking formations

There are many beautiful limestone caves all over the world and it is so hard to differentiate which one is more beautiful than the other because the forms of the stalactites and stalagmites are so unique wherever you go. In our opinion, it is the glowworms that really make the difference.

Not only do you get to see beautiful caves which are very easily accessible or tourists (even younger and older ones), but also you get to see the amazing glowworms which are very, very special.

Therefore, the Waitomo Caves are a must see in New Zealand and also in our top 1000 worldwide.

Don’t let yourself be fooled by the shortness of this article. Even though I won’t write a lot about our visit to Lake Taupo, believe me, this place is really something to be seen…

The book listed both, Lake Taupo and the Huka Lodge, as one place of the 1000 Places To See Before You Die. So technically, we haven’t seen it, since the lodge was a bit out of our price range (prices started at a whopping 1,000€ per night/room), even in the winter.

Since the lodge is also most famous for the fishing that can be done here, I don’t know if I can really appreciate it as much as I should.

The Huka Falls from above

I haven’t really seen the point in fishing. And me being a passionate diver, I doubt that I will ever enjoy hours and hours of waiting for fish to get killed. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think recreational fishing is bad, I just don’t enjoy it.

We had the amazing pleasure of sleeping right at the lake with a splendid view of snow covered volcanoes on the far side of the lake. Luckily our motorhome had huge windows which allowed us to marvel at the sunrise from the warmth of our bed.

The Huka Lodge is very close to my favorite attraction at the lake, which are the Huka Falls – a rapid waterfall of crystal clear, blueish water.

Famous Huka Lodge

Of course, the waterfall is no comparison to the great waterfalls in the world like the Niagara Falls, but the sound and sight of 140,000 liters of water crashing down every second is still breathtaking.

If you want to see the famous Maori Rock carvings, you’ll have to take a boat trip, since they can’t be seen from land. Since they have been created in the 1970s, they didn’t appear to us to be something historically important, but more something that is made for tourism. The carvings are something we have reserved for our next trip to Lake Taupo. Hopefully, then we won’t be on a backpacker’s budget.

Is Lake Taupo & The Huka Lodge Really One Of The Places?

Huka Falls Jet

Even though we didn’t go to the Huka Ludge, I believe that the lake, the magnificent view and especially the Huka Falls alone are worthy of being on the list. So if the Huka Lodge is really as great as promised in the book, well then even better.

If our budget allows it, we’ll come back here again some time and then go and stay a night or two at the lodge.

Beautiful view from our motorhome

I don’t know if I will ever appreciate the fishing there, but just for the views alone it is definitely worth another visit to Lake Taupo and hopefully also the Huka Lodge.

If you are planning to see Lake Taupo and you are not staying at the Huka Lodge, I recommend you rent a selfcontained campervan or motorhome. Just make sure you rent one with a large window in the back, so you can really enjoy the beauty of the lake when you are waking up in the morning.

Since we only had 9 days in New Zealand, we had to make them count. Being on the north island, we decided to see the volcanic region around Rotorua, which is also 1 of the 1000 Places To See Before You Die. As it turned out, that was a great decision.

Rotorua is famous for all the geothermal activity in the area. You won’t find too many hotels or caravan parks that don’t have their own thermal pool for their guests. Even walking around the city and the parks, you’ll pass hundreds of small steaming wells and if you go in the winter (like we did), you can even see them from far away, because the amount of steam increases with colder air temperature.

Us at Waiotapu Thermal Wonderland

Even though it has a beautiful lake named like the city, Rotorua in itself was not the attraction that we enjoyed most. It really is all about the geothermal activity even though the city is also called Roto-Vegas because there are so many motels and there is so much entertainment there.

The Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland

Erupting geysers, huge volcanic craters, bubbling mud pools and of course the steam in the air with that strong stench of sulfur, that is what you’ll find in Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland just outside of Rotorua.

Lady-Knox-Geyser

It is an amazing geothermally active area with pools of differently colored hot waters that really make you forget about that sulfuric smell in the air.

The different minerals which are dissolved from the rock by the hot water and then deposited on the surface create a wonderful play of colors all around the area, where you can do a 90 minute walk to see the different spectacles of the park.

The park is home to the Champagne Pool, one of the largest thermal pools in the world with both the diameter and depth being over 60m. The name is derived from the constant bubbles which are coming to the surface. We didn’t have the fortune of seeing the bubbles (or much of the pool) because there was too much steam – probably because of the cold air temperature of about 5°C.

The pools are quite hot, some even are almost boiling – so watch out, there is no swimming in those pools.

Bubbling mud pool

Just outside the park it the Lady-Knox-Geyser which erupts every day at 10.15 am (well, they use some sort of soap to make it erupt). The geyser shots up hot water and steam up to 20m high for as long as an entire hour. It is pretty amazing to see the geyser, but after 10 minutes it gets a bit boring.

Also just a few hundred meters outside the parks are New Zealands largest bubbling mud pools, where – as the name implies – you can see hot mud bubbling away. The mud is not bubbling because it is boiling, but because gases from underneath come out at these mud pools. Nevertheless, they are quite hot and you probably shouldn’t jump in.

The Thermal Pools of Rotorua

Nice landscape to cool down the hot water

We happened to be in the area on Soni’s birthday so we wanted to treat ourselves to a nice visit to one of the thermal pools in Rotorua. The most popular one is the Polynesian Spa directly in Rotorua, which is also the most expensive one.

Lucky for us, the owners our Caravan Park in Rotorua (very nice people btw) told us that there is another thermal pool just 30 minutes outsides of Rotorua called Waikite Valley Thermal Pools which only cost $14 compared to $42 for the more luxurious Polynesian Spa. It doesn’t have massages and stuff, but we didn’t want that anyways. So we saved some money and had an amazing time there.

Since it was winter, the landscape was even more impressive as the hot water (up to 99°C), which runs down a slope to cool down to a comfortable 39°C, was creating so much steam that it felt like walking through a sauna. Truly impressive!

I have been to other thermal pools, but this one is right in the middle of nature, which made this a very unique experience.

Is Rotorua Really One Of The 1000 Places?

Sunset at the thermal pool

I’ve never been to Yellowstone National Park, which is another very famous geothermal region, but I strongly believe that this area deserves to be on the list. With all the exciting stuff there is to see around there, you’ll find something fun for everyone.

And the fact that there is a city built right on this area with all those steaming pools and wells makes this quite an interesting place to be. So yes, this is one that stays on the list.

There are lots of interesting ways to see Australia, one of the largest countries in the world. You could go from city to city by bus or train, hitchhike your way across the country or rent a car and sleep in a tent. We saw one guy who did the whole trip on his bike and – if you can believe it – one guy even walked across Australia with all of his baggage on a rickshaw which he pulled behind him.

We opted for the much more convenient way of travelling, which was to rent a campervan. And since our trip around half Australia happened to be in the winter time of the southern hemisphere, we got an awesome deal on a little bit of luxury: A Ford Transit 2 berth campervan with a shower, toilet and even TV.

12,136 km in 2 months

We travelled a total of 12,000 km in two months plus another 500 km or so we did in the smaller campervan we rented for a couple of days. Our journey around Australia took us from Sydney along the East Coast to Melbourne, over the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide and the Stuart Highway all the way to Cairns, from where we made our way down to Sydney again, of course stopping for a dive at the SS Yongala, a tour at Fraser Island and a short stay in Brisbane.

We got our campervan from KEA and since they declared bankruptcy just a few days before we returned the campervan, I won’t bother with a review of the rental company. They do however have the same campervans in New Zealand and all I am going to tell you is that these campervans are amazing.

The Advantages Of A Campervan

The more time we spent in the campervan, the more we grew convinced that this was a great choice. Not only did we save all the money we would have to pay for hostels and transportation, but we also had something we called home for more than 8 weeks.

Camping at the beach

That alone was special. It was nice to unpack everything and to put the backpacks away for a while.

You might disagree with the saving of the transportation cost since we did have to pay for fuel. Luckily we had a fantastic diesel engine and if you combine that with a driving style that would suit an old lady (mainly going no faster than 90 km/h) you end up with less than 100€ in fuel cost for each 1,000 km travelled. We probably would have spent more than twice that if we would have taken public transportation and overland buses.

The Cheapest Campervan Might Not Be As Cheap As You Think

So when you decide what campervan you get, don’t just get the cheapest one you can find. Consider fuel cost, especially if you want to drive that thing for more than 300km/day, because the cost of fuel can easily eat up everything you saved.

Comfortable campervan bed

However I wouldn’t recommend planning to drive more than 250 km/day if you actually want to see something.

And when it comes to looking for a cheap campervan, many people often overlook the risk of an accident and cost of insurance. In lots of cases, the cost for all-inclusive insurance is more than the rental cost. In our case, we were lucky to have the no-excess insurance included in the rate, but a comparable campervan at another company had a standard excess of $7,500.

Of course, when you look at probability, you are cheaper of not taking the insurance, but if you are taking that risk, be aware that you actually have to pay $7,500 in case you get into a bigger accident.

Our hippie camper which we had just for a few days

If you are on a budget anyways, that might as well be the end of your whole trip and maybe your vacations for the next few years.

Another disadvantage of the cheap campervans (like Wicked Campers, Hippie Camper and the small Backpacker campervans) is the acceptance by Australians. If you are staying in a camper that basically screams that you are a young, budget traveler, chances are much higher that you might get a visit from the police checking on you. At least we made this experience with the Hippie Camper we had for a few days and people felt the need to warn others about the backpackers (us).

The Little Things That Make Your Campervan Trip Even Better

Campervan with hot shower and toilet

If you want to have a little bit of luxury you can’t really pass on a campervan with a shower and toilet on board. With that we were almost completely free to camp wherever it was allowed to do so (or at least wasn’t prohibited) and especially along Stuart Highway that is something that is really amazing. Our campervan even heated the water with the heat from the engine, so we could even have ourselves a hot shower.

With the two gas stoves we were able to cook our own food for most of the trip (except the occasional pizza from Domino’s – especially on Cheap Tuesdays) which saved us lots and lots of money. Our campervan had a real little kitchen which allowed us to cook inside. That doesn’t seem to be a big deal until it starts raining or when it gets dark and the mosquitoes come flying.

Us being online entrepreneurs we obviously won’t travel without a laptop, but what good is a laptop without power and without internet access?

Cooking in the campervan

So we bought a 12V charger for the laptop and an inverter to charge the batteries for the camera. Both were plugged in to the cigarette lighter, which saved us from having to go to a caravan park just for recharging the batteries.

For mobile internet we even had two options. We got a mobile data package from Telstra and Woolworth. The latter one had far less coverage and speed, but therefore cost only 30% of the Telstra package. This way we got good coverage and speed in rural areas and the cheap data for the cities.

Since the coverage of radio is quite bad in most parts of Australia, having an audio input to the campervans radio system was a huge bonus. This allowed us to listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks from our laptop and smartphone.

The best ways to inform yourself when travelling is by going to the information centers and talk to other travelers or the grey nomads (retired folks who basically live in their motorhomes and caravans, apparently there are over 100,000 of them in Australia ).

Campingfire in the woods

They will give you the best information on where to sleep, where the best beaches are and where you have to be careful.

Things You Should Consider and The Downsides Of Campervans

We travelled in winter time, which meant that at 6 pm at the latest, it was pitch black. In some places sunset was even at 5pm, which meant if you haven’t found a place to stay for the night yet, it was probably not getting easier to find one.

Kangaroo warning – better to drive during the day

Also the wildlife, e.g. kangaroos will make your life miserable as they just love to jump in front of driving cars. Therefore you should try to find the place where you want to spend the night before it gets dark.

In some areas, especially in cities, some Australians don’t really like campers and it is prohibited to sleep in your campervan in public areas.

Some places are more strict than others, so the consequences of ignoring the “No Camping” signs can be either just an unfriendly getting woken up by a police men, who tells you to go somewhere else, or even a $2000 fine (which is the apparently strictly enforced in the Whitsunday region).

Drive on left – what a challenge

We tried to obey the law as much as possible and went to caravan parks in the bigger cities. We avoided areas where campers weren’t welcome. Why should we spend money there if they wouldn’t even allow us to stay there?

Australia is the country of gravel roads which means with a regular 2 wheel drive you won’t be able to see everything.

We missed out on lots of places simply because the roads didn’t allow us to go there. Our rental company had a very generous limit of 12 km on gravel roads as long as they where well maintained. Other companies only allow a max of 500m on gravel roads, which basically means there are even more places you aren’t allowed to go.

Quick warning: Don’t go on roads that aren’t sealed or well maintained if you don’t have a 4WD. We got stuck twice. Don’t trust the road signs or maps. If the road doesn’t look right, don’t drive on it. We have to learn that the hard way.

Getting stuck and out

Our last point of advice sounds simple, but it really isn’t: Australia is huge. Most people from Europe have no understanding what this really means. Americans from the country maybe have a better feeling for this. Australia really is huge.

Don’t plan to see too much and don’t calculate your travel distance by using Google Maps. And if you do add at least another 50% more kilometers and twice the time you think you will need. You will drive slower than you think and you will have to go far more kilometers as most good stuff is not on the highway but sometimes actually more than 100 km to either side of it.

I thought we could do the first leg from Sydney to Melbourne in about 2 days since Google Maps said it’s only 850km and 425km a day seemed to be a good pace. We spent a week on that trip and did about 1300km. Lucky for us, we didn’t have a tight schedule and we were able to adjust quite easily.

So , Who Should Rent A Campervan In Australia?

Stop and go

I am not even going into the whole topic of when to buy and when to rent a campervan or if a 4WD with a caravan is better. I leave that to others. There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each option.

However, I do recommend that if you are planning to take a trip around Australia, you might want to consider a campervan instead of travelling by bus. More so if you are a couple looking to travel together.

In the end the campervan offers more luxury than any hostel ever could for the same amount of money (assuming you get a good campervan in winter) and you get to see much more places because you are not reliant on the bus routes, which in most cases don’t really take you to the nice places.

Inside of the campervan

You save lots of money on tours you would have to pay to take you to places that can easily be reached with any campervan.

And believe me, the feeling of being able to go wherever you want and stay wherever you want outweigh all disadvantages a campervan could ever have. We’ve chosen a campervan and couldn’t be happier with that decision.

On our life long quest to see all 1000 Places To See Before You Die, we have already seen many places that are truly worth of being on that list. We have also seen places along the way that were so stunning and beautiful that we decided to put them on our own list. This time though, we decided to scratch two places of the list: The Barossa Valley and Hunter Valley.

Both these valleys are wine regions and it might just be a coincidence that so far in Australia we only scratched wine regions of the list. It might also be that since Soni doesn’t linke wine and I am not a big wine drinker myself, we do not really appreciate the beauty of wine regions.

We did get to see Barossa Valley in May, a time when all the leaves turned into pretty colors of red and yellow. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Hunter Valley (end of June) all the leaves have already fallen off and all we saw was empty grape-vines.

Barossa Valley

Both regions used to be famous for their wines back in the 90s. That’s probably why they are in the book. I am sure that these regions do offer a lot for wine lovers and couples looking for a romantic retreat with cozy bed and breakfasts. Since we are currently on a romantic getaway year, we don’t really have the need for it.

To be honest, I didn’t see much difference to the beautiful wine regions in Italy, France or the wine regions in our own backyard back in Germany. That’s why we have concluded that both, the Barossa Valley and Hunter Valley are nice, but should not appear on our own List of 1000 Places To See Before You Die.